Sexual harassment case won’t be quashed even if internal complaints committee fails to complete inquiry within time under POSH Act: Delhi HC

The bench also observe such complaints containing allegations of sexual harassment “deserve to be treated with a certain amount of seriousness and responsibility” and have to be inquired into and “taken to their logical conclusion” in the interest of both the complainant as well as the person against whom the allegations of sexual harassment have been levelled.

The petitioner had sought an interim relief challenging a second sexual harassment complaint filed by the complainant under POSH Act. According to him, the second complaint filed on October 12, 2022, related to the same alleged incident which was already the subject matter of an initial complaint filed on June 3, 2022. He had also challenged the notice received by him regarding the hearing to be conducted on January 6, 2022, in the second complaint.

The CA contended two proceedings for the same incident are not permissible in law. Relying on Section 11(4) of the POSH Act, he argued the inquiry had to be completed within a period of 90 days and that in his case the period had lapsed from the date of the first complaint of June 3, 2022, hence the entire proceedings of the ICC are vitiated.

However, the high court bench noted the contents of the two complaints were identical and about the same incident. “Prima facie, I find force in the contention of the learned counsel for the respondents that the inquiry which has been initiated by the Internal Complaints Committee is in fact, with regard to the complaint dated 03.06.2022 and the hearing already held on 23.09.2022, and the one proposed to be held on 06.01.2023, are part of the same inquiry. There is no question of the petitioner being subjected to two separate enquiries,” it said.

The court observed the ICC hearing held on September 23, 2022, was a preliminary one in which the efforts for conciliation were possibly made by it in terms of Section 10 of the Act. Thereafter, a second hearing was fixed on January 6, 2022, which is “part of the same inquiry proceeding which have been initiated pursuant” to the June 3, 2022, complaint, the court noted. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India had contended the complainant had initially sent her complaint through email on June 3, 2022, and she submitted hard copies of the same complaint to ICC on October 12, 2022, which is a requirement under the POSH Act.

Rejecting the CA’s prayer for interim relief for quashing the proceedings, the high court noted that in the backdrop of the given case the provisions of Section 11(4) of the POSH Act “cannot be said to be mandatory”.